I disagree with Gerard Lourdesamy's suggestion that the powers of the proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) be watered down in the face of police opposition as stated in his article Give IPCMC a chance.

The basis of this suggestion sprang from his earlier proposal to model the IPCMC after the UK's Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). However, I contend that we cannot follow the UK laws in regards to IPCMC s power to discipline the police simply because the circumstances in Malaysia are completely different from those in UK.

UK has one of the most exemplary police force in the world under the control of a political leadership of unquestioned integrity. In contrast, our police force is in a dire state, which was brought about through two decades of corrupt misrule.

However, the police are fighting tooth and nail against the IPCMC, even to the extent of its chief risking his neck by openly defying the prime minister and his cabinet. What does this tell us? It tells us that the police are very fearful of the IPCMC. It also tells us that the Royal Police Commission must have prescribed the right medicine.

The vehemence with which the police are fighting back against the IPCMC can only mean two things. First, its corruption and abuse of power is really as bad as diagnosed by the commission, otherwise, it would have welcomed the IPCMC to return the good name to the force, if its vast majority especially the upper echelons are clean. Second, the IPCMC is effective in nailing the corrupted, wherever and whenever they may be.

For the first time in our history, a watchdog body is armed with teeth and made to report to Parliament. And that strikes fear into the guilty.

Opposition to the IPCMC is centred around the arguments that there are already enough bodies to check police excesses such as the Police Force Commission, Anti-Corruption Agency, public complaints bureaus, etc, without the IPCMC. But the truth is that all these bodies have proven to be total flops.

Why have we failed to control the police? Sad to say, this is attributable to the failure of both the present and the previous prime ministers who also control the police directly as security/home ministers. The previous PM failed because he used the police primarily as henchmen to preserve his corrupt autocracy while the present PM also fails because he is too weak, as demonstrated by frequent public defiance of his authority.

As for the growing noise of Umno members of parliament attacking the IPCMC, it should be viewed in the larger context of an antiquated Umno resisting changes. The rationale of these Umno opponents to the IPCMC is clear. If the police become a clean and efficient law enforcer, who is there to protect the corrupt ruling elite from prosecution? And how could the opposition be legitimately prevented from effectively challenging the incumbent power then?

It is at time like this, when the issue at hand becomes a litmus test of a leader's integrity, that the bad and the good are identified. I dare say that none of the Umno members of parliament who vociferously opposed the IPCMC would dare to seek a mandate from the electorate in his constituency to scrap the IPCMC, for he knows that the answer would be an emphatic no.

There is a crying need to reform the police force along the lines prescribed by the royal commission. The police know it. And the people overwhelmingly want it. In fact, the people have been yearning for this day a decisive turning point of our police force through effective reform to turn the heightening crime rate around and return law and order to this country. Our peace-loving and tolerant people deserve this from their leaders.

All we need now is a courageous political leadership to implement it. Will Pak Lah rise to the occasion? And will the more decent leaders in Umno pick up enough courage to do what is right for the people?

Should Umno fail the people on a crystal-clear issue like this, there is no way it can escape the people's judgement.